The days of your island challenge seemed so long ago, even though it was only two months since you defeated the elite four and became champion. Just a month ago, you and Hau said your tearful goodbyes to Lillie when she had decided to travel to Kanto to start her own adventure. It's been weeks since you last spent time with Hau, now you've only see him in passing. It's not like you were upset with him or anything. You knew he was busy training to try and beat you, to become champion himself. But, you admit you were a bit…
Lonely.
You spent your days wandering the islands with your Pokémon, or spending time with your mom. There were no challenges to face, no evildoers to vanquish, there was nothing. It was starting to get depressing. The days seemed to slip by in a blink of an eye until one morning you received a rather strange letter from a rather strange old man.
He handed you the letter telling you to make sure no one was around when you opened it, and then hurried off. You waited until he was out of sight to open it. The letter only to come to the motel on Route 8. It was extremely vague. Something felt wrong about the situation. It's not to say that you didn't trust the strange man that handed you the strange letter...but…
You really didn't.
For lack of better judgment you decided to ignore your gut feeling and go anyway, it wasn't like you had anything else to do. You quickly spun on your heels and headed back inside to pack a small bag, you had no idea what you were going to come up against. You couldn't stop yourself from grinning as you packed, it was like you've been stuck in a stupor for the past month and a half. You felt as if you were filled to the brim with excitement, though there was still that tiny voice in the back of your head that was telling you that this wasn't a good idea.
That excitement seemed to drain out of you as you flew over the ocean towards Akala. The excitement that was once there was now replaced with nervousness. You kept telling yourself that there wasn't anything dangerous waiting for you. It wasn't like Team Skull were waiting to jump you, you were positive they had disbanded a few months back. Regardless of that fact the mystery of what was in that motel room put you on edge. You were so lost in thought that you didn't even notice you had landed. Charizard gave you an annoyed snort as if to tell you "we're here, now get off!" that finally knocked you out of your thoughts. You gave the poor Charizard a sheepish smile and apologized before you sent it on its way.
You took a few minutes to just stare at the motel, one you've passed a dozen times during your island challenge. You took a deep breath and worked up the courage to approach the building. You held your breath as you walked up to the middle door in the back, to the room that was indicated on the letter. It wasn't like this was a seedy motel in the middle of some shady city in the middle of gang territory. You nervously laughed. Of course not, that would be ridiculous. There were plenty of other people and trainers around, there were even a few captains around as with the remnants of Team Skull skulking around And, with the huge catastrophe that was Lusamine and her reign of the Aether foundation over, things have quieted down significantly. At least that's what you were telling yourself.
You finally decided to turn the door handle after standing and staring at it for a few seconds. You swung the door open in a much more violent manner than you had originally intended. You let your anxiety get the best of you. Your adrenaline was pumping and you were ready for the worst. You were shocked to only find, well, two people.
They didn't seem like they were going to jump you or kidnap you or anything of the sort really. But they both seemed far from ordinary. There was a rather serious looking women on the right with lilac hair. You thought she was very pretty. On the left was probably the most ordinary and generic looking detective you had ever seen but he gave off a very strong vibe of friendliness. Like he was a puppy who couldn't wait to make a new friend.
Even though these two strangers seemed friendly enough you still had no idea why they called you here and you were letting the anxiety of the whole situation take over. Luckily before your anxiety took you to the moon the serious looking woman spoke up.
"You must be the Champion that we both have heard so much about, it's a pleasure to finally meet you. My name is Anabel and this is my partner Mr. Looker we are part of the international police. Is it true you came into contact with an Ultra Beast?"
Your blood ran cold at the mention of Ultra Beasts. Going into that strange dimension with all of them, those things, just floating around. What they might do to you if they latched on to you. What they had apparently done to Guzma, what they did to Lusamine. The battle you had to fight with her and her Pokémon. It all have you nightmares and you had hoped you were done with them forever. Ignorance is bliss, after all.
You looked away and stuffed your hands in your pockets trying to make yourself as small as possible as if to hide. "Yeah." You nodded meekly speaking just above a whisper "I've seen them."
"Good, this makes things a bit easier. But first, I would like to ask for a battle." She said rather bluntly.
"A battle?! Right here, right now?!" That seemed to have snapped you out of your spiral of despair. There was a look of complete confidence on her face. You saw that she was 100% serious about this Pokémon battle. You couldn't exactly refuse, you were the champ after all.
"Alright, you're on!" You gave Anabel a smug smile, but you didn't exactly have a good feeling about this. Those feelings were proven correct as Anabel nearly knocked you on your ass in less than 30 minutes. All you could think about during the battle was how incredibly strong she was and how you were going to have a snowball's chance in hell to win. But, luckily, you won by the smallest of margins, you won, and she even seemed impressed.
Anabel was giving you a proud smile, one a mother would give her child "Even when you're backed into a corner you still find a way to win. I would expect nothing less than the champion of the Alola region."
Looker, who had previously been silent and watching your battle intensely as if he was studying you, was suddenly bursting with energy, "But chief, you were still able to hold your own against such a strong opponent. That's incredible and requires an even greater strength!" He was practically speaking a mile a minute, you could barely make out a word he said. Once he was done speaking (you guessed that's what you would call it), he turned to you with the biggest and goofiest grin you had ever seen. "Yes, I think you're absolutely perfect for the job." He nodded.
Anabel chimed in with a smile, "I agree." You looked between the two of them with a puzzled look. You had a feel you knew what they were going to ask but you feigned ignorance hoping that maybe you were wrong.
You weren't.
Anabel quickly went over the details of the small (read: large) job they wanted you to help with. In short, you were to either catch or destroy the few Ultra Beasts that were forcefully thrown into our dimension.
You broke into a nervous sweat whenever the words 'Ultra Beast' were even mentioned. There's no way in hell you were going to go, by yourself, up against these creatures. You've only seen one type and the one you saw was absolutely terrifying.
Now, this woman before you is telling you that there are more and they're all unidentified types, with unknown abilities.
"No, no, no, no! There is no way I'm doing that! Absolutely no way!" You huffed, clearly irritated and more than a little scared. All you wanted to do was get out of that motel room and away from these people. As nice as they seemed, you wanted nothing to do with their escapades. You just wanted to run and pretend like none of this ever happened. Maybe if you closed your eyes and wished hard enough you'd be back home. You were half considering bolting until Looker piped up.
He had gotten a bit closer to you, he made you jump out of your skin. You took a step back. Does this man have no concept of personal space? You looked at him with a rather sour look on your face but he just seemed to smile.
"I understand you're scared and we won't force you to do anything you're uncomfortable with. But, if you want my honest opinion? I think you're perfect for this job because something tells me you'll do the right thing." He paused to nod, more to himself than to you. His voice was filled with warmth, as if he genuinely cared about you, a complete stranger. "Why don't you go home and think about it for a few days? We'll be here waiting for you." He gave you another smile, but this time it wasn't a silly grin, but a warm smile.
All you could do was nod and muster out a weak, "ok," before nodding towards Anabel and turning for the door. You turned the knob and pushed the door open just a crack before turning around to look at them both. They were a strange pair and the look in Looker's eyes didn't make you feel better about this whole thing. It was as if he knew something you didn't.